This post was published long before the Mists of Pandara Expansion.
The tips and techniques explained here may be outdated.

Headless Horseman Strategy

By now most everyone has been through the fight and seen the mobs. It’s highly doable.. I went through with a friend and he showed us this strategy. With this.. if everyone is in position, no one get Conflagarated.

Phase 1: Someone summons the horseman. Horseman flies up out of the ground and then aggros on whoever summoned him. Tank grabs the horseman and then takes him back into the little building. In the picture above, tank is the little black dot, horseman is the big red dot. Everyone kills the horseman. Melee or Ranged DPS is fine. When the horseman gets to 1% his head will pop off.

Normally he head stays in the little building. Avoid the body as it does a whirlwind for a respectable amount of damage. “Kill” the head. When the head gets to 66% health it will rejoin with the body and start phase 2.

Phase 2: In this phase, anyone who is not the tank can get conflagrated. You are afflicted by conflagration. You run around like you’re scatter shot.. you burn for ~3k damage.. and you inflict an impressive amount of AOE splash damage on everyone near you. He seems to go for #2 on the aggro list. If someone gets conflagrated, move away from them. The tank will -not- get conflagrated.

Whoever has highest aggro will end up with the horseman on them as phase 2 starts. As quickly as possible, tank should grab aggro and drag horseman back into the building. EVERYONE who is not the tank should stand no closer than the blue line and DPS from a distance. Do NOT melee if you’re not the tank.

Yes, if you’re a pally this means sending him dirty looks.. or maybe a boomerang. If you’re a rogue.. practice your thrown weapon skill… One of our mages used this time to skill up in wands (thus building mana for phase 3).

You can drag phase 2 out as long as you need to. Make sure at the end that everyone has decent health/mana.

When the Horseman reaches 1% his head will again pop off. Kill the head. When the head reaches 33% it will again rejoin the body starting phase 3.

Give the horseman a second or two before you approach the building to kill the head or to start phase 3. Sometimes he has one more Conflag left in him right after the head pops.. and after the head rejoins the body.

Phase 3: Horseman will again aggro on whoever is highest on the list. Tank should grab him and drag him back into the little room. Eventually the horseman will summon 4 adds. They pop out of him and land around the room. Ignore them.

DPS down the horseman. DPS quick. Melee or ranged DPS is ok in this phase. When the horseman reaches 1% his head will pop off.

KILL the head. If you take too long with the head it will again rejoin the body and you’ll have to start phase 3 all over again.. only this time you’ll have all the existing adds to start with.

Notes:
– If you get an uber crit on the head, just before it rejoins the body, it will carry over to the next phase. IE, we were in phase 1.. and needed to get the head to 66%. The mage did an uber crit and dropped the head to 50%. At the end of phase 2, when the head popped off it started at 50%.

– Be sure to get the quest from Goldshire. If you do it right, you can summon the horseman twice. Once directly in Scarlet Monestary Graveyard and once from the quest. I don’t know if you can do the quest more than once though. The quest pays ~20g.

1 comment to Headless Horseman Strategy

Great strategy! I imagine you don’t even need a “real” healer if you do it that way (we tried DPSing him to death the other night without a healer, and wiped, but once we had a priest, it was easy street).